Content Analysis of English language teaching resources for children based on the age characteristics of the audience

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• zahra Bashari Torshizi ¹
• Arsalan Golfam ²

¹ Ph.D. student of Linguistics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.

² linguistics associate professor of Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran.

10.22067/infosci.2023.82118.1156

Abstract

Introduction
Both the importance of learning English and early childhood language acquisition underscore the importance of focusing attention on factors that facilitate language acquisition for this age group. One of the essential components in any educational process is the related textbooks, which can determine the success or failure of learners in attaining the intended objectives. According to most experts, textbooks should be developed to meet the needs of students and their differences. Among these considerations for children are emotions and senses.Therefore, the present research was conducted to evaluate the content of textbooks written to teach English to children using criteria based on the emotion-based education model, which deals with the effect of emotions caused by the use of senses.
 
Methodology
 
This study was considered applied research that conducted a content analysis method. Its main purpose is to evaluate the sources of teaching English to children in Iran. The population of the study consisted of all the textbooks used in this field, and the statistical sample is the most popular among them. To identify these sources, it was tried to identify the most popular English language institutions in Iran and detect the popular resources through them. For this purpose, an explanatory questionnaire was designed scientifically and answered by 107 English teachers who were selected by random sampling. On this basis, the corpus of the investigation consisted of four collections, namely, Super Minds, First Friends, Family and Friends, and Selected Collection of the Iranian Language Center. In the second step, the content of the mentioned sources (18 book volumes) was analyzed based on the three criteria of »use of senses«,»communication« and  »emo-sensory-capital«. Since decision-making based on multiple criteria requires reliable methods, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), as a method for analyzing complex decisions is used to score the criteria . For this purpose, four questionnaires were prepared according to this method and completed by experts. Finally, by calculating the consistency rate that is used to check the reliability, the relative and absolute weights of the alternatives are calculated and the most suitable source was determined.
 
Finding
According to the relative value calculated for each of the criteria, the two criteria »integration of senses« and »communication« have a relative value as top ones equal to 0.467, and »emotional-sensory-capital«  with a relative value of 0.067 is  in the third place. The calculations related to the relative value of »integration of senses« are in line with the Emotioncy model hierarchy, in the sense that the relative value of the levels increases as one moves from auditory to master level. According to the obtained results, the relative value of the sub-criterion of  »centri-communication«  is equal to sub-criterion of »peri-communication«. This shows that according to experts' views, paying attention to motivational techniques in the learning process has the same value as the techniques used to convey and clarify the content. The relative value of the resources in the »integration of the senses« criterion shows that the Super Minds collection with a score of 0.38 is in the highest rank and Family and Friends and First Friends collections are in the middle with scores of 0.134 and 0.111, respectively and the Iranian Language Center collection with the score of 0.087 is in the last place. In terms of the »communication« criterion, the Super Minds scored the highest with a vlaue of 0.408, and the Iranian Language Center collection have taken the last position with a score of 0.053. The Super Minds collection, with a score of 0.452, is also the best resource in terms of the »emotional-sensory capital« criterion, followed by Family and Friends, First Friends, and Iranian Language Center with scores of 0.329, 0.178, and 0.041, respectively.
 
Conclusion
The  main findings show that the resources used to teach English to children in Iran stopped at the first two levels of the Emotioncy's model and did not reach the higher levels of the emotioncy pyramid. Among them, the visual emotioncy which has the highest frequency, followed by auditory emotioncy. Because less than 20% of children learn through listening at a young age, it can be said that the majority of the audience of these textbooks do not benefit from their learning style. After the visual and auditory emotioncy, the inner emotioncy emerged, but it is much less used than the previous stages. Kinesthetic emotioncy is placed after Inner emotioncy. Meanwhile, a group of learners will learn better when concepts are experienced through physical, tactile and movement processes. Regarding Arch and Master's emotioncy, we can say that Arch's emotioncy is not taken into account in any source, except for the Super Mind Collection, and Master's emotioncy frequency is zero in all sources. In the reviewed sources, sensory use was more direct and conscious, and many of the assessments of sensory criteria were related to centri-sensory techniques, while paying attention to peri-sensory techniques facilitates the process of  deep learning. The study data also show that there is no balance between the two sub-criteria of communication, and the sub-criterion of centri-communication has a greater share of sources.The predominance of centri-communication techniques over peri-communication suggests that the primary purpose of sources is to convey content consciously and directly and less attention has been paid to the attractiveness of effective communication. Also, attention to the criterion of emotional-sensory-capital was not observed in the reviewed sources; while successful communication is also implicitly lost if the content of the book is indifferent to the emotional-sensory capital of the subject. At the end of the research and after calculating the absolute weights of the sources, the Super Minds collection with an absolute weight of 0.481 was determined as the best textbook for teaching English to children in Iran. The Family and Friends collection ranks second with an absolute weight of 0.221, and the First Friends and Iranian Language Center collection have taken the third and fourth positions with an absolute weight of 0.207 and 0.092, respectively. In conclusion, it can be said that in the content of popular sources of teaching English to children in Iran, the three criteria of »use of senses«, »communication« and »emo-sensory capital«, which influence the learning process of children, have not received much attention.

Keywords

• Applied linguistics
• Content analysis
• resources for teaching English to children
• Family and Friends
• Super Minds
• First Friends
• Up and away

Main Subjects

• Content Analysis

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